A portable labeling machine has been used to attach labels to various goods or other members to be attached with to indicate prices of the goods or other information. An example of this portable labeling machine is briefly described with reference to FIGS. 12 and 13. FIG. 12 is a side view of a conventional portable labeling machine 1, t having a pair of left and right (front and back of the paper) side plates 2, a retaining portion 4 for a label 3, an operation lever 5, a transfer portion 6, a printing portion 7, a peel-off portion 8, and an attachment portion 9.
The pair of left and right side plates 2 are integrally formed with a grip 10 graspable by the operator so that the operation lever 5 can be pivotally operated around a pivot 11 relative to the grip 10.
The label strip 3 has a plurality of label pieces 13 temporarily attached to a backing strip form mount 12 which is wound into a roll for the retention by the retaining portion 4. In accordance with the operation of the operation lever 5, the label strip 3 is drawn out in a strip form by the transfer portion 6 toward the printing portion 7 so that the label pieces 13 can be peeled off from the mount 12 by the peel-off portion 8 and then the label pieces 13 can be attached to another member (not shown) by the attachment portion 9.
The retaining portion 4 has a pair of left and right retaining plates 14 fitted to the top surfaces of the pair of left and right side plates 2 in such a manner that either of the retaining plates 14 can be pivoted or opened from either of the side plates 2 so that the rolled label strip 3 can be retained between the pair of left and right retaining plates 14.
The transfer portion 6 has a transfer roller 16 that rotates around a roller shaft 15 and allows the transfer roller 16 to rotate around the roller shaft 15 by a predetermined pitch via a link mechanism (not depicted) to enable a transfer of the label strip 3, by an operator grasping the operation lever 5 together with the grip 10.
The printing portion 7 has a print unit 17 fitted to the extremity of a forked yoke portion 5A of the operation lever 5, a platen 18 that is pivotally openable around the roller shaft 15, and an ink roller 19, the ink roller 19 applying ink onto types of the print unit 17 to print predetermined information on the label piece 13 then transferred to the top surface of the platen 18.
The label peel-off portion 8 has a peel-off pin 20 disposed downstream of the platen 18 so that only the mount 12 is turned backward at the peel-off pin 20 to peel off the label piece 13 from the mount 12.
The attachment portion 9 has an attachment roller 21 positioned at a lower portion of the extremities of the side plates 2 so that the label piece 13 peeled off by the peel-off portion 8 can be attached to a member. This attachment roller 21 is pivotable around an opening/closing shaft 22.
A bottom cover 23 is disposed at a lower portion of the pair of left and right side plates 2 in such a manner as to be pivotally openable around the opening/closing shaft 22 for loading the label 3 into the portable labeling machine 1. The bottom cover 23 has at its extremity at an end opposite to the opening/closing shaft 22 a knob 24 for opening and closing.
The operation of loading the label strip 3 into portable labeling machine 1 is described with reference to FIG. 13. FIG. 13 is a side view depicting the operation of loading the label strip 3 from the state depicted in FIG. 12. FIG. 13 (a) is a partially cut-away side view of a principal part depicting a state where the bottom cover 23 is opened from the side plates 2 and FIG. 13 (b) is a side view of the principal part depicting a state where the platen 18 is opened further from its state in FIG. 13 (a). As depicted in FIG. 13(1), the operator of the machine 1 catches the extremity at the knob 24 of the bottom cover 23 on a fingertip F to pivotally open the bottom cover 23 around the opening/closing shaft 22. The operator then catches the extremity or the end having the peel-off pin 20 of the platen 18 on the fingertip F to pivotally open the platen 18 around the roller shaft 15.
Thus, as depicted in FIG. 13 (b), an insertion passage 25 for the label strip 3 is formed between the transfer roller 16 and the opening/closing shaft 22 at the bottom of the pair of left and right side plates 2. The label strip 3 drawn out in a strip form from the retaining portion 4 is inserted into the insertion passage 25. The platen 18 is pivotally closed to its original position. The bottom cover 23 is also pivotally closed to its original position, to thereby complete the loading of the label strip 3 into the portable labeling machine 1.
However, insertion of the label strip 3 needs two operations of opening the bottom cover 23 and then opening the platen 18 as described above. Hence, there is a problem that even though an operator unfamiliar with the use of the portable labeling machine 1 can easily perform the operation for pivotally opening the bottom cover 23, the operator may not know the following operation for opening the platen 18 and consequently may not be able to insert the label 3.
Another problem is that even though the operator knows to open the platen 18 by catching its extremity with the fingertip F, the fingertip F is hard to insert and the opening operation of the platen 18 is hard to perform due to the narrow space between the extremity of the platen 18 or the peel-off pin 20 and the opening/closing shaft 22 or the peel-off roller 21. There is also a problem that when the fingertip F accidentally enters from the extremity of the platen 18 far into the interior portion of the side plates 2, the fingertip may contact the ink roller 19 and become dirty, or a problem that since a stamping operation by the print unit 17 is sometimes carried out by grasping the operation lever 5 in the state when the label strip 3 is not passing along the top surface of the platen 18, the top surface of the platen 18 may be made dirty with ink and the top of the fingertip F may become dirty when performing the operation for opening the platen 18.
It is also demanded that when the label strip 3 is loaded into the portable labeling machine 1, the operator can freely select the opening state or the opening position of the platen 18 to facilitate the loading operation irrespective of the opening position of the bottom cover 23.
A similar problem on loading of the label strip 3 still remains in a portable labeling machine configured such that when attaching a label 3 having sales promotion information or advertisement information printed in advance thereon, the label piece 13 of the label strip 3 can be peeled off and attached by only the operation of the operation lever 5 without being provided with the print unit 7.